Plants are superb at enticing animals to pollinate their flowers or carry off their seeds. But one plant co-opts an astonishing combination of fire, bees and ants to mastermind its reproduction.
The South African Natal crocus, Apodolirion buchananii, has a gloriously bright white flower that emerges from the ground before its leaves appear in early spring. But the flower only blooms shortly after fire breaks out naturally in its native grasslands, leaving it standing like a beacon among the blackened grass to help lure bee pollinators, with an irresistible sweet scent that wafts through the air.
After the flower is pollinated, the developing fruits remain underground for six months until they are mature, protected until the seeds are ripe and ready to be dispersed by ants.
But the biggest surprise was the discovery that the seeds attract ants by hoodwinking them with a scent that mimics ant larvae. The ants are fooled into collecting the seeds thinking they are rescuing their own offspring, carrying the seeds off to their nest where they look after them. Presumably the ants have something of a shock when the “larvae” eventually germinate into seedlings.
